Burris Steps Into The Remap Spotlight

October 06, 1991|By Thomas Hardy.

The legislative redistricting coup by the Republican Party has pointed up the importance of two campaigns last year that no one paid much attention to: Democrat Roland Burris` election as Illinois attorney general and the three races that ended in the Democratic Party`s keeping a 4-3 majority on the state Supreme Court.

The battlegrounds in 1990 for control of the redistricting process were thought to be the governor`s race and the handful of swing contests in the Illinois Senate.

Indeed, Democrats retained the 31-28 Senate majority that enabled them to collaborate with a 72-46 Democratic House majority and pass a favorable reconfiguration of legislative boundaries. And the GOP thwarted the Democrats` ability to steamroll a remap by electing Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, who vetoed the bill.

When a Legislative Redistricting Commission couldn`t resolve the impasse with a bipartisan compromise map, Republicans climbed back into the driver`s seat by winning a lottery for the tiebreaker vote on the nine-member panel.

The benefit of winning the draw was realized when GOP members voted Friday to file a redistricting plan with Secretary of State George Ryan that will allow Republicans to take back control of one or both chambers within the next decade and shift the balance of political power away from Chicago and in favor of the fast-growing suburbs.

Enter Burris and the Illinois Supreme Court. Democrats could get one more advantageous at-bat in this suspenseful game, and the fat lady hasn`t even cleared her throat.

Under the state Constitution, the redistricting commission is something of a small, super legislative body. Its vote and filing of the document by Saturday`s deadline for final action had the force of law.

As Democrats and other allegedly offended groups consider what course to take in challenging the map to have it amended more to their liking-and, of course, political gain-one obvious and much-talked about venue is Federal District Court, where issues of the Voting Rights Act, district compactness and partisan gerrymandering can be addressed.

Meantime, however, the Constitution provides that the state high court has original and exclusive jurisdiction on the remap-meaning there`s no mucking around in circuit or appellate courts first-and that actions before the court on redistricting ``shall be initiated in the name of the people of the state by the attorney general.``

Democrats eyeballing what they know in their heart of hearts to be a fairly solid, albeit GOP-friendly, redistricting effort by the Republicans-and considering their chances before a federal court panel of Ronald Reagan and George Bush appointees, a lot of them loyalists of former Gov. James Thompson- like what they see in Burris and the state high court.

Now Burris has his first big political decision to make as attorney general. He must decide whether to take on the Republican map, and a power-packed GOP legal team headed up by former U.S. Atty. Dan Webb, for a complicated and expensive challenge on behalf of Democrats-er, make that the citizens of Illinois.

The decision might appear to be easy. In addition to being a highly partisan former vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Burris is the state`s highest ranking black and could use that fact to bring some standing to himself and make an argument that the Republican map is racially unfair. Furthermore, Burris aspires to run for governor some day and Democrats would appreciate his having taken the fight to the GOP.

But a remap challenge is hardly automatic. Former Republican Atty. Gen. Tyrone Fahner shied away from going after a Democratic-passed map in 1981. Although Fahner faced election the next year, he said his hands-off policy was not an attempt to evade a politically sensitive subject.

Then-Rep. Judy Koehler of the GOP hauled Fahner into court to get him to take the case and wound up with a precedent-setting ruling in a challenge similar to one Democrats could be expected to try. Her district had to be redrawn to comply with compactness guidelines.

While attorneys in Burris` office huddled on the subject last week, his top aide, Ronald Greer, said a decision won`t be made until sometime this week.

The high court lost its most partisan Democratic justice, Daniel Ward, to retirement last year and another, Horace Calvo, died last June. Charles Freeman, the court`s first African-American, and former Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic were elected last year, and Joseph Cunningham of Belleville was named to fill Calvo`s vacancy. The fourth Democrat on the court is former Atty. Gen. William Clark.

Meanwhile, Webb wasted little time Friday by moving directly for a seal of approval on the GOP remap from a federal court. But such courts often are unwilling to tamper with the decisions of state high courts.